Writer and editor of all that is (not) fiction.

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Month: July 2015

This is the one you’ve been waiting for.

You know where your stories need to go, but you don’t know how to get them there. You have a couple of tools in your back pocket for when you’re stuck, but the more you write, the more your tricks just don’t measure up anymore. You’ve been thinking, “Should I just get an MFA?”

So we went ahead and got MFAs from two different programs. We also have 30 collected years of personal and professional writing and publishing experience and 15 years of friendship between us. We’ve created the class you’re looking for and we can’t wait to share some of the best secrets we’ve learned with you. It’s gonna rock.

Hop on over to our class page to learn more details. If you like what you see, add your email to our list. This will give you access to the special offers, discounts, and treats we’re serving up for early birds.

Registration opens next week, so you have a some time to send us questions, special requests, or flowers. We always love flowers. In the meantime, we’re fine-tuning material to make this the best craft workshop you’ve ever taken. We’ll also be tailoring the class to you, our students, as we go.

So I reported a few weeks ago that myself and the lovely Carolyn Silveira were splitting town for Hillsborough, New Hampshire to raise a few glasses of beer, put our feet up, and fire up creativity and lesson planning for this Fall’s creative writing workshop. I’m happy to report we accomplished all of that, and we went hard. There were laughs and creatures of all sorts, hikes and fireworks, berries and libations, and we got down to work.

Here is the beautiful desk and incredible library we had to work from:

…some of our messy notes shared from either end of the table and taken, of course, in marker:

And scenes from the adventures that inspired us:

This week, we’re nailing down our syllabus, picking out just the right online format so you get the most out of our class, and setting dates. More oh so soon….

Like this:

Just yesterday, I had the privilege of talking over iced coffee with someone I know is a very special new friend and is also a few steps (and years) ahead of me in creating her own business. She has the experience and the know-how I’m steadily learning about audience and powerful content delivery. Aside from the obvious reasons why it was great to pick her brain a little, a whole lot of unexpected benefits (the best kind of benefits) came from this conversation. I woke up this morning and thought, Why don’t I tell everybody? So here we are.

When our discussion turned to the real, deep down reasons why what we do is essential to who we are, I had a few moments of clarity. But first, a little background. A lot of businesses and companies these days talk about storytelling. It’s a buzz word and a topic even the biggest of corporations realize is essential to reaching their audiences. So that’s pretty convenient for me, because storytelling is that core element of the business I’m building: I believe in it devoutly. And here’s why (you might have heard this a few times before if you love Oprah the way I do): All the pain, struggle, wins, and surprises of my personal and professional life are assets. In this conversation yesterday, I very clearly saw how my stories and experiences give invaluable power to my work. And the same is true for you, CEOs, small biz owners, and entrepreneurs. Our stories add up to an incredible arsenal of what we all have and want so much to give.

The real story of who I am and where I come from, what I want and where I’m going, is not something that has come easy and has not always been clear. And this is true for most of us. Maybe even all of us. My story has been gathered during hours at the library researching family ancestry, long phone calls and kitchen table conversations about deep and long-held desires, and countless pages pounded out in MS Word docs digging up my own memories and turning them, turning them, turning them so I can see them and retell them from every angle (as I’ve been taught to do by a certain Brandon Schrand because that is what an essayist does).

And while I was doing all this researching, talking, and writing that adds up to years, stories emerged. My stories–and you’ll just have to trust me on this–they created the reasons why I want to tell yours. Stories tell us where we’ve been, and they help us know where we want to go. And this isn’t just true of individuals. This is true of everything, and it’s true of your business just as it’s true of mine.

The work of telling a story from any angle: This is my specialty. This is how I’ve spent my 10,000 hours becoming an expert. This is how I love to work for you.

So where are you and your business going? Let’s find out together and write it true, so your right people, your clients, understand without a shadow of a doubt just exactly why they need you.